CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 41 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF FISHERIES OF THE 

 STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOR THE YEARS 1870 AND 1871 



REPORT 



To His Excellency, H. H. Haight, Governor of California : 



The Commissioners of Fisheries for the State of California, appointed under 

 an act of the Legislature, entitled "An Act to provide for the restoration and preser- 

 vation of fish in the waters of this State," approved April second, eighteen hundred 

 and seventy, respectfully submit their first biennial report. 



REPORT 



California has a seacoast extending through ten degrees of latitude, and a 

 shore line of nearly eight hundred miles. The Coast Range of mountains, which 

 adjoins the coast line for the greater part of this distance, creates by its western 

 watershed nearly one hundred streams and rivers emptying into the Pacific Ocean. 

 These streams and rivers vary from twenty to sixty miles in length. The drainage 

 of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, through seven degrees of latitude, forms 

 several hundred streams, whose united waters make the Sacramento and San Joaquin 

 rivers — the first navigable for a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, and the 

 last navigable one hundred miles from the ocean. The waters from the eastern 

 slope of the Sierra Nevada flow into brackish and salt lakes, in the State of Nevada, 

 having no outlet into the ocean. Pyramid, the largest of these lakes, receiving the 

 waters of the Truckee River, is forty miles long and twenty miles wide. The inland 

 bays and fresh water lakes of California cover more than six hundred and fifty square 

 miles — an area half as large as the State of Rhode Island. 



These few statistics are given that it may be clearly understood how extensive 

 is the field over which, under the law, the Board is expected to prevent the wanton 

 destruction of fish and required to compel the owners of dams to permit the free 

 passage of fish to their native spawning beds. When it is further understood that 

 - the members of the Board neither receive nor expect compensation for their services 

 other than the satisfaction of doing something towards the preservation of the fish 

 now in our waters and adding to the food supply of the people by the introduction 

 of new varieties, it will be acknowledged that if but a beginning has been made in 

 this work, at least public attention has been called to the importance of the subject. 

 If a few men of intelligence, living on the banks of each bay, river, and lake, will 

 inform themselves of what has been done in other states and countries for the propa- 

 gation and preservation of fish, they will create a public opinion that will cause the 

 enactment of proper laws and compel their enforcement. The result will be that 

 after a few years our river fisheries will be largely increased, giving employment to 

 a large number of men, and furnishing a cheap supply of nutritious food to many 

 more people. 



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